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10
Letter to our readers

Leslie Williamson
Philip Pizzo (left) and Christopher Dawes
Philip Pizzo (left) and Christopher Dawes

Welcome to this issue of Stanford Medicine, a special report with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford on pediatric care and research.

It’s an exciting time in the relatively short history of pediatrics — a new specialty in the ancient profession of medicine. About 200 years ago, the thinking was that children were simply small adults, and pediatrics didn’t even exist. A few decades later, when the first children’s hospitals came along, they were places for sick children whose families could not afford a private physician. Through the 19th century, both pediatric and adult patients received only general supportive care. Curing them was largely out of the question.

Thanks to the advances in science and medicine, today’s children’s hospitals are light years beyond their early incarnations. Many children with complicated illnesses who walk into a pediatric hospital today have substantial chances for progress and recovery. Leukemia and many other childhood cancers can be cured. Faulty hearts are replaced. Pediatric researchers and clinicians increasingly focus on softening the medical experience and making it easier, faster and more beneficial for children and families.

Aided in large part by genetics research and technology-assisted surgery, pediatric medicine promises to continue advancing by leaps and bounds. The attempt to grow heart valves from stem cells, described in these pages, illustrates the potential. The goal is to create valves that will hold up for a lifetime in the turbulent environment of the heart, so children with heart defects won’t need repeated surgeries to replace worn-out implants as they grow up.

The growth in genetic knowledge will bring sweeping change to how pediatricians practice medicine. Within just a few years, it will be possible to inexpensively sequence an individual’s genome — the full set of genetic instructions. This capability will allow physicians to personalize prevention and treatment as never before. By referring to a child’s genome, we’ll know if he or she is predisposed, for instance, to adverse reactions to particular drugs or, conversely, to especially positive outcomes. The potential to provide comprehensive advice will grow exponentially, and will require careful monitoring to ensure that emerging ethical conundrums are handled thoughtfully and appropriately — another reason for a child- and family-focused approach.

Our researchers and clinicians are working together to positively transform the lives of patients and families. We hope you’ll come away from this issue appreciating what pediatrics has accomplished, and inspired by what the future holds for children’s health.

 

Sincerely,
Christopher G. Dawes
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

Philip A. Pizzo, MD
Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine

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